Abandon the False Self

“I am neither the perceived, nor the perceiver and not even the perceiving, but That which makes all this possible. Only in complete self-negation is there a chance to discover our real being. The false self must be abandoned before the real self can be found.”~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Fundamental, Changeless, Awareness

“Find what is it that never sleeps and never wakes, and whose pale reflection is our sense of ‘I’” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Paramakesh is the timeless and spaceless reality,

mindless, undifferentiated, the infinite potentiality, the source and origin, the substance and the essence, both matter and consciousness, – yet beyond both. It cannot be perceived, but can be experienced as ever witnessing the witness, perceiving the perceiver, the origin and the end of all manifestation, the root of time and space, the prime cause in every chain of causation” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Stop the words now.

Open the window in the center of your chest, and let the spirits fly in and out.” ~ Rumi

Match Heartbeats

“The goal of life is to have your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” ~ Joseph Campbell

Return to Source

Empty yourself of everything. Let the mind become still. The ten thousand things rise and fall, while the Self watches their return. They grow and flourish and then Return to the Source. Returning to the Source is stillness, which is the Way of Nature.~ Lao Tsu ~ Tao Te Ching

Direct Realization

“As long as you pay attention to ideas, your own or of others, you will be in trouble. But if you disregard all teachings, all books, anything put into words and dive deeply within yourself to find yourself, this alone will solve all your problems and leave you in full mastery of every situation, because you will not be dominated by your ideas about the situation.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

The Changelessness

“The world and the mind are states of being. The supreme is not a state. It pervades all states, but it is not a state of something else. It is entirely uncaused, independent, complete in itself, beyond time and space, mind and matter.” ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

Get Real

“Looking within for what is truly real, one ultimately finds oneself looking from the place of the Real.

Heart Becoming – Formerly Alchemy Techniques

Heart Becoming and Alchemy Techniques aren’t that different, fundamentally. Both move toward direct experience of our true nature and the wholeness which naturally results from never forgetting that true nature within our body and in the execution of our mundane lives.

When Rob Egan and I started teaching what we had learned to other therapists in Scotland in 2009, it was a spontaneous, interest driven venture that called for us to put everything we knew about healing and transformation into a 3 week workshop. This workshop later became 4 online modules that took most who completed the full course about 1.5 years and included trauma healing, therapist training, ecstatic state induction and identity exploration. My role within that, besides facilitator, has always been one of explorer and researcher, using my keen sense of inner perception to map what I experienced across clients. I was always looking for the origin of trauma, then the origin of identity. I was sure that there was one origin for it all and it took me many years of watching the inner domain unfold, eventually showing me that was true.

Alchemy Techniques evolved based on our latest discoveries of healing and exploration techniques that we found had worked most efficiently up to that point on our own path as therapists. Eventually this evolution lead to an uber-simplification and required a major overhaul of the course structure, making the structural aspects of Alchemy Techniques irrelevant. Also, Rob moved on to other ventures and I was left at the helm to drive based on my particular approach.

One important change in Heart Becoming from Alchemy Techniques is that Alchemy Techniques was more technique focused and Heart Becoming is non-technique, fundamental principle based. Instead of 1.5 years learning techniques, the focus is on developing a practice of returning to the heart, both in sitting meditation and mindfulness practice. The heart will show you what is the next appropriate piece to be integrated, all you have to do is show up with acceptance.

As a facilitator I had spent years trying to sort out all the inner information in order to simplify and make others paths more efficient. At some point all the information reduced down to a singular Aha! moment which revealed the ultimate simplicity: all that is needed is to realize one’s origin, and then never forget it, not in any moment, situation, or in the face of any person. Conveniently that also equals “healing”. Suddenly 2-3 days workshops seemed to be the most appropriate way to guide people into that, with daily practice as the backbone.

That is the short story of how Alchemy Techniques became Heart Becoming. I am so grateful to the Alchemy Techniques tribe, who traveled with us through a sometimes complex path, so that eventually the simplification could reveal itself.